White background

danalec99 · Aug 5, 2004

What could be your suggestions for a white background (other than a wall)? What is it that you normally do? Do we have to invest in a backdrop roller, or whatever they call it?

photogoddess · Aug 5, 2004

I went to the fabric store and bought a large piece of white muslin. WAY cheaper than buying a "real" back drop and no one has ever noticed the difference.

danalec99 · Aug 5, 2004

photogoddess said:
I went to the fabric store and bought a large piece of white muslin. WAY cheaper than buying a "real" back drop and no one has ever noticed the difference.

And how did you "drop" it?

danalec99 · Aug 5, 2004

photogoddess said:
I went to the fabric store and bought a large piece of white muslin. WAY cheaper than buying a "real" back drop and no one has ever noticed the difference.

Whats the name of the store?

voodoocat · Aug 5, 2004

Any fabric store will have white muslin. Just go and ask for the widest muslin they carry.

danalec99 · Aug 5, 2004

Cool.. thanks!

green · Aug 19, 2004

i tried muslin as well... but i've been a lot happier by buying unbleached canvas and artists gesso. (the white "paint" they use on canvases before they paint) its designed to be flexible, and i painted white on one side and black on the other... no shine, no cracking, you can roll it up and not have any trouble.

the other bonus with canvas is that its light tight (especially with the gesson on it) so you don't have to worry about any light coming in from behind.

ksmattfish · Aug 19, 2004

To hang it you can be as simple as stringing a clothes line across, that's what I do when I'm shooting in my own home. A backdrop stand is usually just 2 legs and a bar going across, and maybe it has a few clamps to keep the backdrop from unrolling or sliding off. It's not difficult to make your own.

I went ahead and bought a cheap background stand just because it folds up so nice and small, and it very portable compared to anything I could make (although a length of clothes line is pretty portable as long as you can find stuff to tie it to). But someday when I have my massive dream studio I'll just use poles hung from ropes and pullies on the ceiling so that they can be lowered and raised.

Edit: For pure white with no texture I like paper. It's cheap and light and I can shine a light through the back to really lighten it up. And when it gets dirty I give it to my daughter to color and paint on.

ella · Aug 19, 2004

If it doesn't have to be completely white, then use a sheep skin rug!! I've used these before, and they really look cool

.. but that may not be the effect you're after

photogoddess · Aug 19, 2004

danalec99 said:
photogoddess said:

I went to the fabric store and bought a large piece of white muslin. WAY cheaper than buying a "real" back drop and no one has ever noticed the difference.

Click to expand...

And how did you "drop" it?

I have a backdrop stand. I bought one blue muslin. Very nice and very expensive. Couldn't afford any others but needed a black and a white one also so, I went to my local fabric store - JoAnn Fabrics. I bought 2 large pieces and left one white and dyed 1 black. Had to soak it for over an hour in the dye and the black one was kind of a funky dark grey so I hung it on my back yard fence and sprayed it lightly with black spray paint. The coloring isn't even but it looks great. If I put it way behind my subjects, it looks jet black. Since the 2 handmade muslins don't have the hanger pocket at the top, I use big clips from a hardware store to hold them up on the bar.

danalec99 · Aug 20, 2004

Thanks green, ksmattfish, ella and photogoddess.

mentos_007 · Aug 20, 2004

Hi!

Very often I use polistyrene. I have no ide how it is called in english.. I mean this white polistyrene boards to isolate houses agaonst cold in winter. It is quite good to portraits, when you want to have people on a completely white background but awfull for macro shots because it has a texture than is visible from small distance.
I use it very often to white balance in my cameras.

green · Aug 20, 2004

to hang mine (since its 10x12') i bought a length of electrical conduit from a hardware store ($3) run a chain through it and hang it from the ceiling. i sew a rod pocket on the top like curtains and just let it fall.

another more permanent backdrop i heard of is to buy remnant linoleum and paint the back of it white. this makes you a cyclorama for minimal money. (every so often you need to repaint it, and keeping it clean is another thing to remember)